Guidelines to Write a CV

Many times, it happens- if you find a job and apply but they never send you any feedback. Why? There is a possibility that it happens because of your CV. Moreover, your CV might not meet the standard as they required.

A CV is a brief summary of your skills and achievements. It’s a document that you will probably need to use when applying for jobs or internships.
Writing a CV can be a challenge for many people. But, with a bit of practice and some helpful tips, you can develop your professional skills and create a resume that highlights your top qualifications.

Don’t have much time to read? Watch this short video instead–

What is a CV?

Full form of CV is Curriculum Vitae, which means ‘course of life’ (Latin phrase). According to Wikipedia -a CV is a written summary of a person’s career, qualification and education. In Canada and the United States, it’s known as a resume. If you follow some rules, you can make your academic CV UK.

How to write a CV?

A good student CV is a summary document where you describe yourself – your education, work experience, languages known to you and your hobbies.

If you want to make your perfect CV for university students, you might have to make sure every little detail is polished to perfection.

You’ve got to write a perfect CV because your CV reflects what you are capable of. You need to create a good impression of yourself.

• Focus on your academic strengths and achievements
• Should be well formatted
• The content and length should not be ignored.
• Avoid grammatical and spelling mistakes
• Use active verb and present tense.
• Use professional email and contact details.
• Don’t use any aggerate words or sentences.
• Online doesn’t need to post your house number or detail.

Length of a CV

A standard CV will be never too long. For example, a school-level student and a graduate student’s CV are not the same. However, you have to summarize your CV very gently with formal words. While making a CV, you should go for two pages if you’re confident enough. It might be difficult for you to summarize yourself within a single page. So just keep in mind and don’t waste your precious CV with long information, no one is going to read it!

Page Setup

You have to be focused on your font size (it should be 14-16pt for section titles, and 11-12pt for normal text). Make sure that there are enough margins and space between the text so it will look formal. Keep a formal background colour, standard font size and colours, and headings consistent so clearly show that you are writing a complete CV. Don’t make it colourful that is not easy on the eyes. Can use: Ubuntu, Roboto, Overpass, etc. cannot use: comic sense.

A CV for the university is submitted by the applicant to the university. It must be easy to read with the right spellings and grammar, a clear objective, required contact information, relevant interests, and skills.

An applicant’s CV should necessarily have the following details

• First and second name –
  Use your full name without any spelling mistakes and don’t make it too short or too long.
• Personal statement –
  Try to give your personal statement about yourself, future plan, motive and working plan shortly.

• Full address –
  While posting, mention your full address, if they have any quarries, they can send you a letter easily. However, online don’t give your full address, you can be targeted by frauds.

• Email addresses –
  Use your professional ID.

• Phone numbers –
  Mention your professional number not personal.

• Date and place of birth –
  An accurate birth date justifies your real age so don’t use fake.

• Nationality –
  If you are an international student or worker mention your own nationality, if you have another citizenship, do not forget to mention both.

• Languages known –
  If you know multiple languages, mention on your CV that you are a multi-lingual.

• Education details –
  The most important part of a CV is to give full educational details correctly, including schooling, college and graduation or post-graduation with your CGPA and year.

• Work experience, if any-
  If you have any part-time job experience or full-time experience, mention it with information. List your relevant work experience if any.

• Additional skills and interests-
  Your additional details like, you have IT skills, know different languages, design skills etc. mentioned on your CV.

• Hobbies –
  Reading, writing, travelling if you have any hobbies, you can shortly mention them.

• Reference –
  You can add some professional references to make a standard CV.

An Academic CV demands publications and presentations to be included along with the general information that all CVs contain. If you follow the steps, you can easily create a cv for the university application in the UK.

An Undergraduate CV depends on the individual applicant’s skills and experience. Don’t forget to follow the reverse chronological order while including any accomplishments. In other words, the most recent ones must be on the top. It will guide you on how to write an academic cv for undergraduates.

A Post-graduate CV should essentially have a personal statement, education details, your work experience, interests and any other additional information such as computer skills and languages are known to you.

Appropriate words

Some appropriate words that should use in a CV, are-

• Responsible
• Hard-working
• Reliable
• Innovative
• Confident
• Accurate
• Acceptable

Avoidable words

Some words you should never use in a CV, such as-

• Excellent communication skills
• Good relation
• Goal-driven
• Multi-tasker
• Highly expected
• Self-motivated
• Details oriented
• Motivated
• Followed

A Chronological Standard CV requires you to give the information under the headings such as education, work etc. and it should be in chronological order, the most recent ones to be listed first.

Format

• Don’t use any title in the CV, it is just a waste of space, your name can be your title.
• All information should be in bold so that during the interview, the interviewer can pick up the information quickly.
• While saving your CV on your CPU/laptop, don’t save it as ‘document -1/2’ or ‘my cv’, just use your name – ‘Christopher-CV’.
• Sometimes, the company wishes to CV with a cover later. In that case, the cover letter should be given with the CV, not separately.
• If you print your CV, print on A4 size white paper, don’t use colour paper.

 A CV at a glance should look impressive. The presentation should be neat without any errors in spelling or language. Clearly mention your name and contact information.
Your most recent qualifications and experience should be mentioned first. Add your skills and accomplishments relevant to the course you have applied for.
A Perfect CV catches the attention of the reader at first glance!

FAQs

Related Content:-

• UCAS Personal Statement – Mistakes to Avoid
• Tips to write a Reference Letter
• Career Prospects for UK Graduates